The
parsonage Saurbaer is situated in the county Hvalfjordur Coast. During Catholic times, the
churches were dedicated to John the Baptist. Saurbaer owes its renown
to the pastor Hallgrimur Petursson (1614-1674), who served there
during the period 1651-1669. He ranks among the most beloved poets of
the country and left behind among other excellent poetry „The Passion
Hymns" reciting the story of Christ's passion and death. He abandoned
the school at Holar as a young man without having finished his studies
and worked his way through in Copenhagen as a forger among other
things. Later he finished his studies in Copenhagen and was ordained
when he came back to Iceland.

His wife, Gudridur Simonardottir, was among the 242
people, who were abducted from the Westman Islands in 1627 by Algerian
buccaneers and sold on the slave market in Algeria. She was among the
very few, who were bought back by the Danish king and brought back to
Iceland. She was not so religious as her husband, whose name is well
preserved by his work and some topographic names at Saurbaer. He had
to give up his service to the church in 1669, when he caught leprosy,
and move to the farm Ferstikla nearby, where he dies five years later.

The church at Saurbaer was consecrated in 1957 and
dedicated to Rev. Hallgrimur. A renowned painter, Sigurdur
Guđmundsson, designed the church and more artists lent a hand in
decorating it. The fresco altarpiece was painted by the Finnish artist
Lennart Segerstraale and stained windowpanes by the Icelandic artist
Gerdur Helgadottir. The other memorial church, dedicated to the same
pastor, is the biggest one in the country, The Hallgrims Church in
Reykjavik.